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There are some obvious skills and attributes that you need before embarking on a career as a PGA Professional.
A certain proficiency playing the game is important for those entering the Membership Pathway Program.
You need to have at least an interest in the fundamentals of the swing and desire to expand your understanding so that you can share that knowledge with others.
Work ethic and time management skills are integral for anyone hoping to balance hours working in the pro shop with playing commitments and the educational responsibilities of the program.
But perhaps what is not evident on the surface are the depth of communication and people skills necessary not only to become a successful coach but to become an entrenched and valuable member of the golf club where you are employed.
As a keen golfer growing up on Sydney’s North Shore, Neil Rolfe sent letters to every club within reach of his house looking for a way to work in golf.
Having first joined the club as an 11-year-old junior, Rolfe worked as a casual at North Ryde Golf Club for three years before being offered the opportunity to take up a traineeship under Marty Lyne in 2002.
Now the Director of Golf at Pennant Hills Golf Club, that early experience working with a broad demographic at a public golf course reinforced to Rolfe that as he progressed in his career communication would be key.
“I underestimated the people skills and communication skills that you need in the job,” admitted Rolfe, whose sole focus in beginning his traineeship was to become a club professional.
“Having access to such a busy public course, I found I had to deal with a lot of different personalities and a lot of different people. It challenged me, but it also helped bring out communication skills and you learn to get an understanding with a student or a member.
“I am extremely lucky to have a great team around me here at Pennant Hills in Rachel Bailey, Andrew Potter and Liam Shiels. Communication is the ultimate key to my success and something at the start of my career I didn’t understand the importance of.
“You need a great team around you of staff that all communicate really well and have the same goal, the same vision.
“I never ever thought when I started out being a pro that I would need those skills as much as I do now.”
After more than a decade working at North Ryde Rolfe joined Rod Brown at Bayview Golf Club in 2012, taking over as Head Professional in 2013 for a period of five years.
That led to the position at Pennant Hills and a new membership base extremely proud of their club and their status as one of the premier clubs in Sydney.
Again, it was those communication skills that he employed to appreciate the standard of service that Pennant Hills members have come to expect.
“I was quite obviously very thrilled to get the position but I also felt like I had a really important responsibility to take on the legacy of the club,” said Rolfe.
“A really great camaraderie, great membership to be a part of and I really embraced it because it was a really amazing opportunity to be a part of the tradition of the club.
“Meeting so many different people at other clubs, I knew that I had the skills to deliver the membership what they wanted from their pro.
“My role is really making sure that the members engage with their golf club. I’ve got to be that approachable person that they can come to, to help them with their experience.
“I’m a big believer that if someone engages with their pro at their club, they’ll stay at that golf club and they’ll play golf if their pro takes an interest in their golf.
“If they’re engaged with me, I know that they’re happy here and they’re going to continue to be a member at Pennant Hills.”
The Queensland Golf Industry is pleased to announce the finalists for its upcoming Awards Night to be held at The Star – Gold Coast on Thursday 28th October, 2021.
Represented by the PGA of Australia, Golf Australia, Golf Course Superintendents Association of QLD and Golf Management Australia, the QLD Golf Industry Awards Night acknowledges the achievements the finalists have accomplished during a time that the game has experienced unprecedented activity.
“We have had a record number of nominations in many categories this year and it is pleasing to see so many deserving individuals, golf clubs and events,” said PGA State Manager Broc Greenhalgh.
“The judging period was expanded this year due to a move of the Awards Night from its traditional March date to its new home in October, and therefore award nominees were judged on their activity for the period of January 2020 to July 2021.”
Golf Australia State Manager Luke Bates explained how the evening is a great opportunity to bring the industry together at a really important time.
“The game of golf has been extremely busy at golf facilities since the beginning of the pandemic and our focus has now turned to maintaining the momentum that the game is experiencing. The awards night recognizes those who will play an integral part,” said Bates.
Having all areas of the industry represented by governing bodies, the night is truly an industry-wide event and, as Golf Management Australia (QLD) President Aaron Muirhead explained, it’s an integral part of the golfing calendar.
“It is an opportunity, not only to look back at those who have excelled, though to celebrate the health of the game,” said Muirhead.
“We are fortunate that our game was well geared to thrive over the past 18 months and after the awards were conducted virtually last year, this year’s awards night is another milestone that we are close to returning to a new normal.”
The unsung heroes of our sport are often those who prepare our playing surfaces and for this reason recognising the golf club ground staff has become an increasingly important part of the QLD Golf Industry Awards Night.
Golf Course Superintendent Association (QLD) President Paul McLean is pleased to see the support that this part of the industry has received over recent times.
“Golf courses are busier than ever. To keep them in the condition we have come to expect in QLD has been tough, however there have been some standouts during the last 18 months and we look forward to putting them up in lights,” said McLean.
The finalists for their respective awards (in alphabetical order) are:
Golf Club of the Year
Golf Club of the Year (Under 400 Members)
Golf Supplier of the Year
Junior Program of the Year (MyGolf Centres of the Month – QLD)
Volunteer of the Year
Coach of the Year (Game Development)
Manager of the Year
Coach of the Year (High Performance)
Club Professional of the Year
Management Professional of the Year
Golf Club Staff Member of the Year
Golf Club Board Member of the Year
Tournament of the Year
Superintendents Achievement Award
Metropolitan Tournament of the Year
Regional Tournament of the Year
PGA Legends Tournament of the Year
Golf Course Turf Apprentice of the Year
PGA IGI Excellence in Golf Education Award
Additional awards presented at the QLD Golf Industry Awards Night that don’t attract finalists include:
To book your tickets or for further details about the QLD Golf Industry Awards Night, please visit www.qldgolfindustryawards.com.au or alternatively contact the PGA (QLD/NT) office on 07 5657 6100 or via email [email protected].
Given his access to the family business as funeral directors in Canberra, Paul Smith developed an eye for business at a young age.
When he combined that intuition for enterprise with his passion for golf and found his way into the PGA of Australia’s Membership Pathway Program, Smith began to establish a connection between the two that would shape his career.
Owner/Manager of the Bank of Queensland Branch in Southport on the Gold Coast, Smith’s pathway to the financial sector had its grounding in the PGA traineeship he undertook at Queanbeyan Golf Club in the ACT under Geoff Gorham… and an opportunity to test the market for himself.
“I had a boss who was quite liberal in letting me learn as much as I could in the shop,” Smith recalls.
“He decided to go overseas for five or six weeks and let me run the place while he was away.
“He gave me an incentive. He said whatever I could sell while he was away he’d give me 10 per cent. Back in those days you could sell a full set of clubs for about $350.
“While he was away for that six weeks I think I sold $6,000 worth of product, which was probably as much as we’d sold all year.
“By him doing that it gave me the reins of how to run the shop, what you need to do to sell product at x amount of price to make the profit to pay the bills and all the rest of it.
“That was a very good learning curve to a) be doing an apprenticeship and b) learning how to run a business at the same time.
“That earlier grounding does give you a great understanding of how business works. Using the PGA curriculum as an example, it was very, very good for me in going into business.
“I’m not sure all of the trainees would get that kind of experience but I was blessed with my boss in Geoff Gorham who is still a PGA Member to this day.”
Introduced to the game by a father who played off scratch at Huntingdale Golf Club in Melbourne, Smith’s interest was sparked when the family moved to the ACT and bought a house backing onto the 10th tee at Queanbeyan.
As his game developed aspirations of world domination ensued but after seven years of slogging away on the PGA Tour of Australasia circuit reality set in.
“Like all budding PGA Members I wanted to get out there and be another Greg Norman,” says Smith, who attempted to qualify for the 1984 Open Championship at St Andrews but missed out.
“We all tested our luck and had mixed success but all in all not much success.
“You soon realise that you’ve got to do something else.”
Smith ultimately joined the family business and it was that background in conjunction with his golf experience that landed him the job as Director of Golf when Hyatt Regency Coolum opened in 1988.
He spent five years in that role and then 10 more on-site running major events at the resort that morphed into a sports management company.
That introduced Smith to the likes of Wayne Grady and Peter Senior, cricketers such as Ian Healy and Andrew Symonds and Brisbane AFL premiership winner Simon Black.
There were 12 Wizard home loan branches in south-east Queensland before Smith and Black made a move into the banking sector, opening a branch in Kallangur in Brisbane’s north and then the one in Southport in rather unfortunate circumstances.
“The day after we bought it was the start of the Global Financial Crisis,” Smith adds.
“We played catch-up for six or seven years before we got it going properly but now it’s going really, really well and growing all the time.”
Understanding the financial strain that golf professionals – both Tour and Vocational – experience, Smith has gone out of his way to assist PGA Members with their lending needs, whether personal or for the business.
“With the pros who may be unsure as to exactly what they want to do we give them a free appraisal on where they’re at with their bank and their borrowings and what their costs are,” says Smith.
“If they’re on a good deal we tell them that but if they could be on a better deal we tell them that as well and then they make a decision whether they want to move or not.
“We also have a ‘Family and Friends’ offer which varies during the course of each year, such as waiving the application fee and other ways of giving funds back to the PGA Member.
“We try and give them something extra that a normal BOQ customer is not going to receive.
“I’ve been a PGA Member for 43 years and it’s been a great tag to have with the guys, especially with the guys that don’t know me or the new guys coming through.”
Reigning Queensland PGA Trainee Order of Merit winner AJ McCoy is on track to claim the Coca-Cola Pampling Plate after coming through two tough opening matches on day one at Caboolture Golf Club on Tuesday.
The match play tournament that honours PGA Tour and recent Champions Tour winner Rod Pampling’s Caboolture upbringing, the champion will have to win five 18-hole matches across three days to claim the title.
Drawn against 2020 Queensland PGA Trainee Championship winner Luke Parker in the opening round, McCoy only advanced at the first playoff hole after the match finished all square through 18 holes.
McCoy’s next assignment was against last year’s Pampling Plate winner Luke Macklin and again the match went the full distance, McCoy winning the 18th hole to claim a 2-up victory and move into Wednesday morning’s third round.
“It was great match with only a hole in it all round and it took a bit of bad luck for Luke on the 19th for me escape with a win,” said McCoy of his Round 1 near miss.
The afternoon bought strong winds as Round 2 began with the winners from Round 1 taking on the fresh and rested top-eight qualifiers from Monday.
Harrison Wills backed up his morning victory win with a 6&4 victory against Ryan Paul.
“I am lucky to be in the field after my qualifying rounds however the match play game seems to suit me. So far so good,” a confident Wills said.
Round 3 and 4 matches will be played on Wednesday before the 36-hole final round on Thursday.
For live scoring click here.
Round 1 results
AJ McCoy def. Luke Parker 19th hole
Curtis Eldering def. Jesse Egea 20th hole
Harrison Wills def. Zoe Maxwell 4&3
Aden Morrison def. Mitch Dunbar 1 up
Ray Harris def. Cody Davis 4&3
Harrison Law de. Nicholas Barney 4&3
Peter Lyon def. Jamie Rooney 1 up
Tanner Jackson def. Zachery Kelly 2&1
Round 2 results
AJ McCoy def. Luke Macklin 2 up
Harrison Wills def. Ryan Paul 6&4
Ray Harris def. Elliot Beel 1 up
Mitchell Smith def. Aden Morrison 19th hole
Bailey Arnott def. Tanner Jackson 19th hole
Curtis Eldering def. Robert Spence 3&2
Dean Jamieson def. Harrison Law 5&3
Peter Lyon def. Jackson Jubelin 5&3
Droves of new people are coming into golf; Barwon Heads Professional Jess Bramble wants to ensure their first experience of golf is a fun one.
Comparatively speaking, golf came fairly easily to Jess Bramble.
With a background playing tennis, badminton and basketball, Bramble followed her father to Swan Hill City Golf Club as a 13-year-old and discovered an instant affinity, able to hit the ball in the air almost from day one.
As such golf was fun… and she wants to share that joy with newcomers who have found their way into the game.
“I’m not going to be someone who teaches a player on the Tour but I don’t aspire to,” says Bramble, currently on maternity leave from her position as a PGA Professional at Barwon Heads Golf Club on the Bellarine Peninsula.
“I just want people enjoying golf because I think somewhere along the line we’ve forgotten that golf is a game that’s meant to be fun.
“I tell people that no one picked up a golf club and was good straight away. Just try and really encourage and be sympathetic because I understand what it was like starting out and learning new skills.
“When people come to a golf lesson for the first time, ultimately they’re very nervous about whether they are going to be able to do it.
“You can get people to enjoy that process by being social, talking to them, being friendly and encouraging and infectious with your enthusiasm for golf.
“Sometimes that can really rub off and make people feel comfortable.”
An excellent junior player whose lowest handicap as an amateur was plus-1, Bramble had plans of being a sports journalist, spent a year studying primary school teaching at Federation University in Ballarat, worked in the pro shop part-time at Murray Downs Resort and found herself working for a Swan Hill financial planner.
But it was the desire to combine her love of golf and teaching that made the PGA Membership Pathway Program an enticing proposition.
“I always entertained dreams of playing but I don’t know how realistically I took those to be honest,” she concedes.
“I’d enjoyed my teaching course at uni so I thought I could combine the two and be in golf and teach it.
“That’s when I started thinking that a traineeship might be the best way to combine those two things.”
She found a supportive mentor in Dom Azzopardi at Ballarat Golf Club and after three years was named the 2011 Victorian Trainee of the Year.
Bramble stayed on at Ballarat for a further year and from day one was focused on helping beginners to fall in love with the game.
“I love the entry-level golfer; they’re my favourite to teach,” says Bramble.
“I like to keep things really simple and clear and ultimately I just like people to have fun and I try and have a bit of humour in coaching.
“Golf can be incredibly difficult even when you’ve been playing for a long time and have some idea of what you’re doing, let alone when you’re picking it up brand new.
“I just try and show people that you can improve relatively quickly and to celebrate the small goals along the way.”
Barwon Heads is already blessed with a nine-hole short course that is all about fun and with a growing number of facilities such as nearby Thirteenth Beach and Barnbougle Dunes adding miniature versions of their primary layouts, Bramble hopes that this latest golf boom will be one that is fun-filled.
“Golf courses are becoming crazy hard and I’d rather see them go the other way, reverse this notion that the harder the golf course the better it is,” she adds.
“I’d love to see members making birdies and pars. The par 3 course is really good for that but reducing the stigma that it’s not real golf is really difficult.
“I’d love to change that perception.”
It is synonymous with junior golf in the United States but the success of the First Tee program in Hobart shows its application in Australia can be equally as effective.
It’s a simple tenet of the game of golf; count every shot and be honest in the score you keep.
But what if a teenager with no previous exposure to societal expectations such as honesty, discipline and integrity is given a nine-hole putting course and a scorecard to chart their success?
“The feedback we have received from day one is that their behaviour around the school has been better,” says Tasmania Police Senior Constable Steve Rose.
“I don’t know that I can directly attribute that to the First Tee program but certainly there has been noticeable changes in the way the kids are at school when we’re not around.”
First Tee was launched in Australia in December 2019 in conjunction with the Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne Golf Club, the program first established in America in 1997 with nine core principles and a mandate to improve the lives of at-risk youth through the game of golf.
Tasmanian born and bred, Adam Holden completed his PGA of Australia traineeship before spending 20 years as a PGA Professional predominantly in Canada.
He returned to join the team at Tasmania Golf Club in January 2019 and after a self-confessed “grizzle phone call” to PGA Head Office in early 2020 began hearing more about First Tee and how he could introduce it in Hobart.
After undertaking the First Tee training discussions took place with local schools and two branches of the PCYC and once Holden started offering the program he found willing participants who took the lessons they learned back to school and their community.
“A big thing for me is exposing kids to the environment that golf is conducted in,” Holden explains.
“It’s a healthy environment. It’s much better than hanging around shopping malls or the streets.
“There are so many great lessons to learn in golf and it can open a lot of doors. It’s opened a lot of doors for me in life.
“It’s taught me how to communicate with adults, how to behave. I got my first part-time job after school through golf. I’ve travelled the world, do something I love, met so many great friends through golf so I see golf as a great pathway that can open doors.
“Many of these kids may not have the opportunity to play golf or be exposed to golf if it wasn’t for a program such as First Tee.”
The nine key principles espoused by First Tee are Courtesy, Judgement, Honesty, Integrity, Sportsmanship, Respect, Confidence, Responsibility and Perseverance.
Success in golf relies on all nine but it is the transference of those principles that has the greatest impact.
“If we were to do ‘Integrity’ or ‘Honesty’ as a focus for that lesson, we could do putting as the skill for the day,” Holden adds.
“We’ll do some basic technique and then set up a nine-hole putting course where they play a game and keep their score.
“We use that as an exercise in honesty and we’ll talk about how you can be more honest at home, at school or in your community.”
Senior Constable Rose facilitates kids from Huonville PCYC and Constable Ben Hughes from the Hobart PCYC and the impact reaches much further than lower scores and fluent swings.
“Our environment that we work in is with at-risk youth, kids who need a bit of a leg-up or might have some behavioural issues and perhaps haven’t been afforded the greatest start to life,” Senior Constable Rose explains.
“Part of golf etiquette is that when you play a bad shot and frustration starts to get the better of you, you take a breath, resettle and move on to the next shot.
“We’ve found that their golf has improved but also their attitude towards difficult situations that they may encounter. Rather than spitting the dummy, they’re calmer and they appreciate that you do make mistakes and the important thing is to correct those mistakes and move on.
“That’s why the schools are supportive of programs like this because the kids are going away from school and learning new skills. When they come back to school they’re coming back with a better attitude.
“Hopefully, some of those nine core principles we teach translate into their day-to-day life both at school and at home.”
It took the round of the tournament on the final day but Rockingham Golf Club Associate Joshua Herrero has successfully defended his ADH Club Car WA PGA Associate Championship crown at The Vines Golf and Country Club.
Trailing 54-hole leader Matthew Hollington (Royal Perth) by two strokes entering the final round on Tuesday, Herrero picked up birdies at two of his first three holes and was 4-under through 10 holes to surge into the lead.
He dropped a stroke at the par-3 13th but a crucial birdie at the par-3 17th saw him post 4-under 68 for a four-round total of 4-over par and the clubhouse lead.
Herrero then had to endure an anxious wait as he watched Lake Karrinyup’s Joseph Ha birdie the 16th and 17th holes to reach 5-over with the par-5 18th still to come.
Unfortunately for Ha his birdie putt on the 72nd hole slid by for a round of 2-under 70 to finish one stroke back of Herrero in outright second, Hollington (75) a further four strokes adrift in third position followed by Calum Juniper (79) from Gosnells Golf Club.
Played in superb weather across all three days, the tournament marked the ninth year in succession that it has been sponsored by ADH Club Car with the Dunsborough Lakes team led by Paris Murdock taking out Sunday’s pro-am.
The WA PGA would like to thank the following sponsors for their continued support of the event and the WA PGA Associate Championship raffle: ADH Club Car, TX Civil & Logistics, Coca Cola, Acushnet, ICAP, Lake Karrinyup Country Club, Cottesloe Golf Club, Joondalup Resort, Royal Perth Golf Club, The Vines Golf and Country Club, Wembley Golf Complex and Grand Cinemas.
Three of the PGA’s longest serving members were honoured as more than 700 years of membership gathered at Sanctuary Cove Golf and Country Club for the annual 50 Year + PGA Member Afternoon Tea.
Recognising those PGA Members in Queensland who have had at least 50 years of PGA Membership, some of the icons of Australian golf were in attendance to acknowledge milestones achieved by Les Wilson, Gary Wright and Brian Jones.
This year marks the 70th year of membership for Wilson while both Wright and Jones bring up a half-century as PGA Members, PGA Immortal Charlie Earp, PGA Chair Rodger Davis and Life Members Randall Vines and Paul King among the attendees.
Although border restrictions and health concerns prevented Jones and Wilson from attending, Davis said it was important to continue the tradition of acknowledging such distinguished service to the game in Australia.
“At every level these three PGA Members have represented the game and their professional with the greatest of distinction,” Davis said.
“The strength of the PGA lies within its membership and to have Gary and Brian both reach 50 years and for Les to bring up 70 years are milestones that as an Association we should celebrate in the highest possible fashion.
“I’ve been fortunate to know all three of these gentlemen for the majority of their careers and I feel very honoured that I was able to present Gary with his certificate in person.”
There is a certain level of proficiency you need as a golfer before embarking on a journey down the PGA Membership Pathway Program.
There is a playing test to pass before you begin, and to become a fully-fledged PGA Professional, there is a standard you must maintain for the three years of your study.
So it should come as little surprise that the vast majority of PGA Associates have aspirations to play the largest tours in world golf when they begin.
It wasn’t so long ago that those with professional aspirations could not play tournament golf until first completing their time in the pro shop, but the modern tendency is for elite amateurs to jump head-first into the cut-throat world of qualifying schools and tournament invitations.
But there is an option in between, and it provides a pathway to the best tournaments in the world without the anxiousness of having nothing else to fall back on.
Hailing from Geelong, Deyen Lawson understood early in the second year of his time under Steve Brody at Curlewis Golf Club that if he wanted to be an elite tour player he had to start practising like one.
The results were almost instant.
He won the New South Wales, Queensland and Victorian trainee championships and in 2015 won a total of 10 times, including the Rich River Trainee Classic and CPM Southern PGA Trainee Championship.
The following year he notched three top-10 finishes in the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia events, played the China Tour in 2018 and by 2019 had a full card on the European Tour.
“I knew that by the end of the traineeship I’d know what I wanted to do,” reflects Lawson, who is currently ranked 551st in the Official World Golf Rankings and playing predominantly on the European Challenge Tour.
“You get an idea over the three years whether you want to play or coach or manage. It really shows you what you want your life and career to look like.
“Midway through the second year of my traineeship something clicked in my practice and realising that after the three years I wanted to be ready to go and play.
“I had an opportunity in my second and third year to get into a financial position where I could play for a couple of years without worrying about money as such. Give it a real crack and if worked out, good, and if it didn’t I’d go down the coaching route.
“My brother was doing his traineeship at the time as well and he said at the end of the Vic Trainee champs in 2015 that it was the first one that I’d won because I worked harder than everybody else, not because I was more talented than most of the guys that were there.”
When the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of much of the 2020 European Tour season, Lawson returned home to Australia and began coaching under Todd Sleep at The Glades Golf Club on the Gold Coast.
Coaching remains an active interest that he is likely to explore further when he has finished playing and may have inadvertently cost him a breakthrough PGA Tour of Australasia win earlier this year.
“My coach Darrell Brown has said not to help anyone because I know too much and then it will screw you over,” Lawson admits.
“I helped Andrew Evans a few weeks before he won the Queensland Open. He only took $10,000 out of my pocket, but that’s OK.
“He’d missed six cuts in a row and I was on the putting green by myself at about 5 or 6 at night and he was just watching me.
“We spoke about how terrible he’d been going and he asked me to take a look at his putting.
“You see a guy on a putting green grinding and he was down and out with his golf. It was as though he was about to break down, and we’ve all been there.
“It was just a mindset with his putting and his routine and one thing with his grip and set-up. It was keeping it simple and then a few drills.
“It was slightly a technique thing that then turns into a mental thing which is normally something that can creep in for a good player.
“He went out a couple of weeks later and won… and I came second.
“He mentioned me afterwards on his Instagram but I told him not to tell too many people.”
Thinking back, Khan Pullen can identify a few indicators that suggested this week was going to be Cam Davis’s week.
There was the window of time that allowed sports psychologist Neale Smith to spend two days with Davis at his home in Seattle working on how to remain calm under pressure.
There was a significant adjustment in the Titleist van to the face angle of his driver from 8.25 degrees to 9.5 degrees that would allow him to stay on top of the ball and confident through the downswing… and subsequently hit more fairways.
Then there was Kramer Hickok’s near miss a week earlier in an eight-hole playoff with Harris English at the Travelers Championship, the pair becoming good friends whilst playing the Canadian and Korn Ferry Tour together a few years ago.
And then there was Davis’s lust for revenge.
Having missed the cut in his two previous starts at Detroit Golf Club, Davis sent his coach back in Sydney a text message that was laced with fierce determination: ‘I’m going to get that course this week.’
A 26-year-old who spent his junior days at Roseville and then Monash Country Club on Sydney’s north shore, Davis did on Sunday in America what many had been expecting since he won the 2017 Australian Open over Jason Day and Jordan Spieth.
Davis’s breakthrough PGA TOUR title came in dramatic fashion at the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit, firstly playing his way into a three-man playoff with some late-hole heroics and then overcoming four near misses to secure the win on the fifth playoff hole.
The shot-making was breath-taking; the putts that skated by time after time heart-wrenching.
Yet behind it all Davis put into practice the mental training he and Smith had been honing for two years until victory was his.
“That’s the most composed under pressure I’ve ever seen him,” said Pullen, who became Davis’s coach when he was 16 shortly after inviting him to a Golf Australia talent identification camp in Melbourne during his time as National Coach.
“His body language, not over-reacting to shots, the rhythm of his walk and his patience through that playoff was the best I’ve ever seen.
“That was the final little hurdle for him to win, having that composure when it really, really mattered.
“You don’t hit it that well if you’re not that composed and mentally you’re not in the right spot, especially in those situations.
“It was pretty amazing to watch.”
Following the Memorial Tournament in early June, Davis didn’t touch a club for two weeks before picking them back up again a week ago and inviting Smith to spend the weekend working on his mental approach.
Smith is a proponent of establishing routines for players to come into a shot and then a routine to leave it and Davis admitted that he leaned on that as the tournament reached its crescendo.
“We did a lot of work on just routine, and that sort of stuff is really what you fall back on,” said Davis, whose previous best finish on the PGA TOUR came with a third-place finish at The American Express in January and is projected to rise from 134 to No.67 in the Official World Golf Rankings.
“I don’t really have any experiences in the past that kind of prepared me for it. Australian Open back years ago now was similar in that I didn’t really know where I stood when I was coming down the last couple of holes and I was able to hit some good ones and get across the line.
“I wasn’t thinking about that, though. I was just thinking about all the things that I had done all this week leading up to that point and just tried to keep it going.
“It was just putting all that stuff on repeat.
“There’s definitely room for nerves to set in if you do start kind of letting your mind wander, but I felt like I was really deliberate and did a good job of that. That kept me going all the way through each hole of the playoff and at the end of regulation as well.”
Recognising that his charge had got off to a nervy start, Pullen thought first that a bogey at the par-3 ninth might stall his progress and then a three-putt bogey from 36 feet at the par-4 16th might have ended it for good.
But his brilliant bunker shot and exquisite execution on the 72nd hole brought to the world’s attention what Pullen first saw a decade ago.
“He always had this x-factor about him,” Pullen added.
“I caddied for him in a match at the Interstate Series and being inside the ropes with him you could really tell his passion for the sport. He just really loved to play, loved to compete.
“And he just had this little x-factor about him that I thought really separated him.”
As for how this will change Davis’s life, his coach has one simple request.
“Hopefully he’ll get Cam Davis more than Cam Smith now because they still get that wrong half the time,” Pullen said.
“Hopefully he’s formed his own identity now.”
